The Oriental Department and the East Asia Department jointly manage the Oriental and East Asia Reading Room.

It is principally aimed at serving specialist users.

The reference collection in the reading room contains approximately 34,000 volumes, primarily general and specialist bibliographies, reference and standard works on states, people, cultures, languages and literatures of Asia and Africa. The holdings are arranged systematically and descriptions can be accessed via StabiKat.

Please note

Starting July 1, 2026, preparations will begin for the relocation of the special collections of the Department of Oriental Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies as part of the upcoming comprehensive renovation of the building on Potsdamer Straße.

As a result, access to Oriental and Asian manuscripts and other special materials in our collection will not be available until November 1, 2026. We regret that other services, such as reproduction requests, will also not be available during this period.

We ask our users for their understanding regarding these unavoidable restrictions.